The Porsche 911 (pronounced as Nine Eleven, German: Neunelfer) is a
luxury 2-door sports coupe made by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany.
It has a distinctive design, rear engined and with independent rear suspension,
an evolution of the swing axle on the Porsche 356. The engine was also
air-cooled until the introduction of the Type 996 in 1998. Since its
introduction on September
11, 1963, it has undergone continuous development, though the basic
concept has remained little changed. Throughout its lifetime, the 911 has been
modified by private teams and by the factory itself for racing, rallying and
other forms of automotive competition. It is among the most successful
competition cars ever. In the mid 1970s, normally aspirated 911 Carrera RSRs
won major world championship sports car races such as Targa Florio, Daytona,
Sebring and Nürburgring, even against prototypes. The 911-derived 935 turbo
also won the coveted 24 Hours of Le
Mans in 1979. In the 1999 international poll for the
award of Car of the Century, the 911 came fifth. It is one of two in the top
five that had remained continuously in production (the original Beetle remained
in production until 2003), and was until 1998 the most successful surviving application
of the air- (now water-) cooled opposed rear engine layout pioneered by its
original ancestor, the Volkswagen Beetle. It is one of the oldest sports coupe
nameplates still in production. Although Porsche internally changes the
headings for its models, all 911 models were and are currently sold as a
"911". The headings below use Porsche's internal classifications:
Porsche 911 (1963–1989); Porsche 930
a turbo version of the original 911; Porsche 964
(1989–1993); Porsche 993 (1993–1998); Porsche 996 (1999–2005) all new body and
water-cooled engines; Porsche 997 (2005–2011); Porsche 991 (2011–Present).
"Carrera", "GT3", "Turbo", etc. refer to the
specific model trim, as they are all 911s, e.g., "Porsche 911 Turbo."
The series letter (A, B, C, etc.) is used by Porsche to indicate the revision
for production cars. It often changes annually to reflect changes for the new
model year. The first 911 models are the "A series", the first 993
cars are the "R series". Not all of the Porsche 911 models ever
produced are mentioned here. The listed models are notable for their role in
the advancements in technology and their influence on other vehicles from
Porsche. The 911 can trace its roots back to sketches drawn by Ferdinand
"Butzi" Porsche in 1959. The Porsche 911 classic was developed as a
much more powerful, larger, more comfortable replacement for the Porsche 356,
the company's first model. The new car made its public debut at the 1963
Frankfurt Motor Show (German: Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung). The car
presented at the auto show had a non-operational mockup of the 901 engine, receiving
a working one in February 1964. It originally was designated as the
"Porsche 901" (901 being its internal project number). 82 cars were
built as 901s. However, Peugeot protested on the grounds that in France
it had exclusive rights to car names formed by three numbers with a zero in the
middle. So, instead of selling the new model with another name in France,
Porsche changed the name to 911. Internally, the cars part numbers carried on
the prefix 901 for years. Production began in September 1964, the first 911s
reached the US
in February 1965 with a price tag of US$6,500. The earliest edition of the 911
had a 130 PS (96 kW; 128 hp) flat-6 engine, in the
"boxer" configuration like the 356, air-cooled and rear-mounted, displaced
1991 cc compared with the 356's four-cylinder, 1600 cc unit. The car
had four seats although the rear seats were very small, thus the car is usually
called a 2+2 rather than a four-seater (the 356 was also a 2+2). It was mated
to a four or five-speed manual "Type 901" transmission. The styling
was largely by Ferdinand "Butzi" Porsche, son of Ferdinand
"Ferry" Porsche. Erwin Komenda, the leader of the Porsche car body
construction department, was also involved in the design.
This is a very
nice and very rare non period photo that reflects a wonderful era of
Porsche ‘s automotive history in a wonderful way. This is your rare
chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format
of ca. 8" x 12" (ca. 20 x 30 cm). It makes it perfectly
suitable for framing.